Chapter Text
Startling awake is never something she could get used to, but, that was life. That was how it was and how it would be forever now, there wasn’t much she could do against it.
Yosefine smacked her bunk bar harshly, the metallic bang echoing through the tiny room they were allowed to call a bedroom,
“Come on! Can’t be late!” She yelled through a mouthful of toothpaste as she yanked on her pants, Alina groaned turning to the side before swinging her legs off the bed and easily hopping down.
“Gimme.” Yosefine buckled her belt easily, the toothbrush still hanging out of her mouth as Alina turned on her heel and presented her left elbow.
She had lost her arms when she was back on Earth, something about getting too much of the acidic mud on them in Bootcamp, she couldn’t exactly remember. Not that it mattered anyway, some super smart person in the Revenant Station made her a pair of mechanical prosthetics before she arrived on the Genesis. They originally were only for function, just a means to an end so she wasn’t useless anymore, but now, they were her weapons in the army.
Enhanced to the point of sheer brutality, she felt the first limb click into place as Yosefine backed away continuing to brush her teeth haphazardly.
Alina tested the prosthetic, making sure it was working well enough, the shine of the metal catching the light of the one lamp they were provided. It was apparently still before daybreak. The rest of the station asleep beside the War Dogs. It was time for training.
Alina snatched up the second prosthetic, clicking it into place easily before making sure that it was working as well and snatching her pants. They only had maybe two minutes to get ready, Yosefine always woke Alina up before the alarms rang through the station, that was originally their wake-up call.
Yosefine smiled at her, short blonde hair an absolute mess just how she liked it and Alina smiled back, having finally tamed the knotted mess that was her long black hair into a slicked-back high ponytail, just like always,
“These drills are almost getting boring aren’t they?” Yosefine chuckled tilting her head, Alina laughed in return tying up her military boots swiftly,
“They kinda are,” Alina shook her head, standing up and tapping her toes against the floor making sure her boots were heel-locked, “wonder if they’re ever gonna actually send us out for something interesting rather than just constant drills.”
“Probably not, we’ll get promoted to Generals before that ever happens.” Yosefine retorted smacking her shoulder playfully, Alina returned the gesture making sure not to hit too hard, the prosthetics always made it easy to make dents in metal just with the lightest punch.
The door buzzed open, times up, and with one last quick glance at the mirror Alina’s eyes got caught on the little scar at her temple like they always did. Like they always would. Lux, their commander and honorary SA on the station, had told her that when she had been inducted into the War Dog Program that they had to insert a special kind of tracker into her temple.
It wasn’t like she minded but that damn scar still hadn’t faded even a little, a stark white mark on her deep caramel-colored skin. Maybe it never would.
There wasn’t time to think about it, hell, there wasn’t much time to think about anything as they were guided to the mess hall in straight even lines. Their commanders at the head of them before they entered the hall and clicked their heels,
“Dismissed.”
“At ease privates.”
“Mealtime.”
They sounded almost robotic, even with their personalized dismissals their stern, straight faces never changed. Sometimes they would look more tired than before, sometimes they would already be cradling cups of black coffee but, not today.
Alina had gotten used to picking out minor differences, small things that made each day different, normally it was just the conversations that she and Yosefine had, idle chatter, and small inside jokes that they shared. But, even those became repetitive over time, gods, it had to be years now at least since she left Earth and joined The PEA? She couldn’t even remember the name of the person that made her arms, she had met them, however long ago, they smiled when they handed her the prosthetics.
Alina shook her head free of the thoughts, her memories were hazy, she could only really remember her time here, at this station, training to become a War Dog. That first smack to her temple seemed to finally knock her fuzzy mind into place before throwing a flurry of punches right after, effectively breaking the poor soldier’s collarbones and two ribs.
Yosefine bumped her shoulder, snatching up the roll from her tray and taking a bite out of it,
“Whatcha thinking about?”
“Nothing really, probably need some coffee,” Alina responded plainly before smiling and snatching the roll from her hands and finishing it off quickly, she was already halfway up to get that coffee when Lux entered the room.
As if everyone had seen them at the exact same time, there was a loud clatter of chairs and dropped trays as everyone inside the mess hall snapped to attention. Alina snapped her hands to her sides, clicked her heels, and stared straight ahead, it wasn’t every day that Lux themselves came into the hall, they looked angrier than normal.
There was a pause, the pure tension in the air was enough to choke someone before Lux finally put their hands behind their back and straightened,
“Soldiers, at ease.” They said slowly, everyone sat down immediately but they were too afraid to say anything, Alina’s eyes landed on the mace at their hip.
She had only seen it in action once, during one of their late-night drills, the large round chunk of metal at the end of a long chain glowing a bright orange creating huge vicious spikes on the ball that seemed to hiss and pop angrily while they swung it at a speed she could hardly keep up with. They weren’t allowed to hit anything inside the station, so instead, they only practiced their swings, only spun it faster and swung harder.
It wasn’t glowing right now, the spines missing from the ball, the chain wrapped neatly at their belt while the handle clacked against the ball quietly as they walked towards the front of the hall. No one even dared to eat anymore, just staring at their trays as they tried to not look Lux directly in the eyes. Alina kept her head down too, Yosefine carefully reaching over under the table to grab hold of her arm, a nervous habit she always had.
Lux cleared their throat, everyone’s eyes finally snapping over to them in an instant,
“Now that I have everyone’s attention,” they scanned the hall carefully, their almost sand-colored brown eyes flicking over each of them like insects over water, “the station will be approaching the Amiva Belt in two days' time. Half of you will be selected for a special mission as your final test to be initiated into the program and start accepting your own missions. Of course, all of you know that means you’ll have free range to come and go as you please, I advise you all to use this opportunity to its fullest and give it your all, no War Dog ever made it into the ranks with sloppy and lazy work. The mission is to wipe out one of the Old Army bases that have cropped up on the planet Tevinkis Al’ located on the northern side of the second continent. It’s small but, there have been reports that the other larger bases have been using this one to hide their stores of recruits and developing tech. Captain Keter wants this place raised entirely, leave no agent alive, leave no wood unburned and metal unbent. Your numbers will be called tomorrow morning before your drills.” Lux spoke plainly, their expression only changing from the terrifying calm to a mild glare when they mentioned the Old Armies.
Fanatics, wild men and women that thought they could get a ‘better life’ on some other planet with little to no help or resources from the one place that could give them everything they could possibly need just with a wave of their hand. They chose to live in the dirt, chose to fight against them, chose violence over the comforts of what The PEA could give them. And they chose to raid every PEA camp that was back on Earth as if they were trying to keep them there on that wretched rock that benefited no one.
Alina gritted her teeth at the thought of them, fingers balling into fists, she had to fight those fuckers off once in the middle of an acid rainstorm with no arms. Their maddening screams were still burned into her brain and she almost hoped that her number would be called tomorrow just so she could show them what The PEA could so easily do. Yosefine nudged her and Alina unclenched her jaw, a habit that she always had. Lux snapped their heels once, their typical glare back on their face,
“That is all. Fight hard-“
“And you just might make it out alive.” The entire hall responded to their dismissal quote that had been drilled into their heads the moment they had arrived at this station. Every War Dog knew it, even the ones that were currently out on missions, like a personalized iron brand from Lux.
They walked out of the hall immediately after and the pressure in the air seemed to follow them as Alina could suddenly breathe once more and her mind caught up with it all. A mission, their first-ever mission, she turned quickly and Yosefine was already smiling at her in an anticipated giddiness that brought a wide smile to her face as well. This was really happening, if their numbers were called tomorrow they would finally be off this station and promoted!
The thought alone was enough to make the rest of the day so forgettably boring Alina was practically counting down the hours even as she broke training dummy after training dummy with just one punch,
“Hey don’t break them all! Leave some for the rest of us!” Yosefine laughed kicking and punching her own with a speed that matched a bullet being fired from a gun,
“Then you better start hitting harder!” Alina laughed back, letting the giddy energy guide her next punch the crack of the wood loud enough to echo outside the training room as it caved under her fist,
“You’ve got enhancements! Try kicking for once!”
“Don’t think I will!” Another dummy nearly blown to smithereens, she would completely fly through whatever shitty armor the Old Armies had, she could easily break hulls of armored ships and crack cement, all thanks to her prosthetics.
With an almost vicious smile, she turned smoothly and slammed her fist into the next training dummy, the wood already starting to cave,
“You’ll get your ass beat if anyone gets you off of your feet!” Yosefine rolled her eyes still laughing before one of their commanders appeared,
“Hands up Dog! Kick higher!”
“Yes Sir!” Yosefine nodded, her smile morphing into a stern glare as she kicked higher and nearly toppled the dummy.
Their drills were always the same, the commanders made sure they were. Because of her prosthetics, Alina only ever had hand-to-hand combat training, mostly just focused on the hand part, but she was trained with some basic weaponry as well. She was a tactical machine for the Army, and she was completely alright with that, as long as she was of use she didn’t care what they told her to do. She would carry out orders in a heartbeat, that’s what she was trained to do.
It was hard to go to sleep, Yosefine was just as giddy as she was and the two of them even stayed up later than normal just to talk and laugh about what they would do if their numbers were called. Yosefine was a fiery girl, already rearing to go with pummeling The Old Army into the dust just with a pair of combat boots and her vicious smile and Alina laughed heartily when she mentioned how she would easily take down twice as many as Alina did,
“Yeah sure, if you can beat these guns.” She laughed holding up her fists before playfully punching her shoulder, again, making sure to be as light as possible. The last thing she ever wanted to do was hurt her lifelong friend.
Yosefine laughed harder smacking her arms away,
“Shut up! You’ve got the advantage, I’d love to see you try and beat my speed!”
“Oh no, the speedy one will hit so fast, whatever shall I do?” Alina feigned hurt, touching her chest with a pout that sent the both of them into a peal of rowdy laughter that got cut off very quickly when Yosefine’s laugh cut off instantly. She could hear one of the commanders doing their nightly rounds through the station, if they were caught out of bed after the lights out order they could get into some serious trouble.
Without missing a beat they both scrambled into their bunks, Yosefine flicking off the lamp while Alina detached her arms after sliding under the covers. The door buzzed right as they settled and Alina squeezed her eyes shut against the tense moment of silence that was the commander peeking into their room, one second, two, three, four, five, the door slid shut and they both let out quiet sighs of relief.
She could hear the smile on Yosefine’s face,
“Goodnight,” Alina whispered letting her arm hang off the bed before feeling Yosefine fist-bump the now empty mechanical joint socket,
“Goodnight, fight with you tomorrow.”
“If we get picked.” Alina laughed quietly along with her and stuffed her prosthetics into their normal place on her bunk before forcing herself to sleep.
She startled awake again, Yosefine banging her bunk bar with her toothbrush in her mouth while she yanked on her pants,
“Good morning, good morning!” She nearly screamed, already racing around much faster than normal.
It took her a moment for her brain to seemingly boot up before she remembered, today they would announce who was going to go on that mission! Without even thinking Alina practically launched out of her bunk with a huge smile on her face while Yosefine buckled her pants and was already grabbing for her prosthetic,
“Morning!” Alina called back beeping at her best friend hardly giving any time to test her prosthetic before already grabbing for the other and clicking it in place.
It felt like today was truly different, none of the normal drills, none of the burning mornings of just rushing to get ready, even brushing out her hair seemed different, that last glance at that scar something entirely new, and the air was positively filled with an ecstatic giddiness that seeped into the cold walls of the station as they were guided to the mess hall for breakfast. Yosefine smiled at her, crossing her fingers as they sat down and almost no one was even able to actually touch their food as their attention was pulled away by Lux entering the hall once more. Of course, they all stood, and they all sat when Lux gave them their order, Yosefine grabbed her arm and Alina put her hand over her’s trying to contain her smile as her heart slammed against her ribs.
Lux had made sure to drag that damned list on apparently, calling each number out with as much enunciation than what was really needed until she heard it,
“Soldier 1293, Soldier 1294-“ Alina didn’t need to hear anything more.
That was her number, that was Yosefine’s number! She had to stop herself from leaping out of her seat and hollering, instead, she squeezed Yosefine’s hand as carefully as possible and could hardly contain her smile anymore when she looked back at her, the two of them shaking with hardly contained excitement.
They would finally get off this station, they would finally be promoted and they could finally call themselves true War Dogs of The PEA.